Ryan Fitzgerald: Starting Kicker for Florida State University

Intro this is Freddy Stevenson you're watching the trials of Triumph podcast and today we're here with one of the best kickers in college football Ryan Fitzgerald from the Florida state semal man how you doing man I'm good I'm Meet Ryan Fitzgerald good how are you man I'm great I'm blessed I'm glad to finally get you here I'm a big fan first and foremost I got to say that just what you've overcame what I've watched you grind through just diversity when it when it comes to Trials of Triumph your PE embodyment of that so I'm excited to have you on and and chop it up with you yes sir I'm excited we we just VI we have fun on here so I don't know if you've been paying attention to the news and stuff Austin Rivers the other day he had something that he said in the media about basketball players transitioning to the NFL and NFL players not being necessarily able to transition to the NBA who do you feel like are the best athletes out of basketball players and football players I don't know I can't Best Athletes hoop so I can't really yeah we a fullback and then a kicker we probably the ones that shouldn't be talking about this but I don't know I mean I I just remember last year we had dinner at coach Ra's house whole team dead I saw Keon hooping and that was that was pretty impressive so I don't know I mean I think we have on last year's team and this year's team I think we had some athletes that could hoop for sure okay so I guess I've been looking at it I've been seeing everybody talk about it a different discussions and my standpoint of course I feel like you got a few guys that would be able to make that transition I think Anthony Edwards He's a freak athlete I think he would and mentally he's a dog um but the one thing I don't see anybody talk talking about you know of course the physical side of the game you don't know who's going to be able to handle that but the sun is heat like this Florida heat right now is crazy I don't know what a lot of people be able to deal with that yeah I mean playing inside versus outside you know with the pads on and everything I mean that definitely plays a difference for sure NBA vs Football yeah yeah and for me I guess one thing I you know want to have a discussion about is when you talk about that comparison which one do you personally feel like would be harder like I was thinking about the discussion and everybody talking about the contact side of it which is you know surface level we understand that they're not doing that all day so you can't just expect them to jump into it but I'm thinking both both sides going you have an NFL guy going to the NBA with no experience NBA going to the NFL with no experience and one is trying to catch a pass but the defense is doing everything they can to try to stop them then you got the NFL guy trying to score a basket before the end of the game which one do you feel like would be the most difficult feat to accomplish you know I think with with all the different variables on a football field just you know the contact the you know the defender trying to to do everything he can to to stop him from Catching the ball I think I don't know I think that's a little bit harder for sure you know okay yeah I'm I don't know Basketball vs Football I'm I'm a football player they going to hate me for this but but I feel like it' be hard to score a basket like especially you bring somebody like me I'm a fullback it might I don't know I don't see myself even if you give me a layup I might smoke it like I I don't I don't feel I don't feel confident making a layup I I'll put that out there that and then I don't feel confident catching a pass with the a a DB on me too I couldn't do either one so I don't know it's it's it's hard for me to to try and compare both considering I I don't feel confident doing either put me out there kicking a football yeah that's that's more my style yeah no doubt speaking of When did you start playing Football that when did you start getting into football how how old were you when you started playing uh my dad kicked in high school and so I grew up playing soccer and a little bit of baseball like we were talking about earlier and I baseball didn't really come to fruition uh in my future I kind of saw that pretty early and uh I was always pretty good at soccer you know had a big leg I play goalie so um I thought that transition into you know maybe kicking one day with would work and my dad always saw that that I could possibly kick one day and so I started playing around with it when I was like seven or eight just going out in the yard kicking some footballs and then I finally uh tried out for the it was e8th grade middle school team and so that's when they finally had like a snapper and holder and we could do the operation and everything so yeah okay How does it work being a kicker well um as far as that process goes you're from you're from Georgia so how does it work being a kicker I'm sure you guys have to get like specialty coaches to get better I don't I don't know how that process goes like I was a I literally I'm a fullback in in high school I was a linebacker so you just worst case scenario go in the yard and do some drills on your own how does it work being a kicker as far as training I mean my dad was really my coach going up just cuz you know he under he kicked he did it so he he knew like the the motion and the the technique and everything involved so he was really my coach yeah like you said it's kind of like a specialty there's no real position coaches um that actually understand like the kicking technique you know we it's like Outsource kind of you know we we have like our own coaches outside that that do just that they train kickers and stuff they're not like specified to one school or the other okay so Ryan Hobbies Fitzgerald we we know that you do your thing on the field but what's something that the people don't know about you something fun hobbies something about you that the world doesn't know I'm a big golfer I I love golf I think it's just I'm a competitor I love competing against myself and golf you're competing against yourself like whether you shoot like 100 whether you shoot you know even par it's it's still a competition with yourself to be better than you were the day before so I love that I thrive on that and so yeah golf is definitely one of my big Hobbies you think you beat me in mini golf I think so yeah okay yeah I'm see I'm not really a golfer but mini golf I'm undefeated man nobody yeah I'm undefeated what change that yeah but um Romantic comedies me personally this one's going to shock you one thing I feel like everybody sees me they're like man this big dut he looks intense looks serious but for me I'm a big guy that loves like romantic comedies yeah like me and my me and my wife we watch them a lot one of our favorite movies is 51st dates so whenever I'm out of town and stuff I'm just chilling just vibing and I'm watching romantic comedies like man I miss my baby I'm ready to get back home but yeah that's that's my thing I got to be a little careful though she might yeah she might get excited watching this and next thing you know we got another baby on the way but but um yeah I'm a big romcom guy I got you yeah I I I I watch a couple romcoms here and there with my girlfriend yeah she's she's big into those so that's my Spiritual life thing man but um I see like on your Instagram page you got Galatians 69 what's what's that about you big spiritual guy uh you know I'm not a guy that goes to church every Sunday but you know I I have a Bible app on my phone and and I like to go on there you know try to get on there at least once a day and just you know I think at the end of the day especially with my position uh with kicking you know my I don't base my self on results on the field you know base my life you know through Jesus Christ and through God and just you know trying to to live and glorify him every day and I think that that if my focus is on that it kind of takes away some of the pressure of of what I do okay kind The 22 season of building on that man the the 22 season that was a tough season for you I know you're a competitive guy want to be the best every single time you step out there puts your team in a position to be successful but to your expectation I know it wasn't a year you wanted to have kind of take take me through that season what you were thinking you know going through those lows throughout the season and you know having some of the fans voice their opinions how was that for you that year yeah I mean it was tough I mean after it really starts you know after the 21 year you know I had like an okay season around like 80% or something like that and I wanted to be even better and so you know I talked with um several other kickers and and just with myself and analyzing everything and I thought that it'd be best to kind of change my swing a little bit and try a new approach and everything and so heading in the 22 season I implemented that and it did I didn't really see the results I wanted to and then fall Camp came and it's like you know I got to stick with it and hopefully it'll get better and it didn't and then you know started the 22 year off I think like four for nine and I was like okay this isn't going to work so switched back to my old swing and um took a couple weeks get that do in and then finish the year uh I think 8 for 11 you know better still not great but yeah and the you know like you said the fans kind of voicing their opinion you know you want to play for a team that has a passionate fan base no doubt about that um but yeah it was tough I mean I had to learned that you know opinions on the outside don't matter you know I think it was hardest for my family to learn that you know especially my grandma she she's big on Facebook and so I I told her I was like you can't you can't comment Dealing with criticism back to every single person that you know talks about about me on Facebook and so she's had to learn that and um yeah it was it was a struggle um you know mentally for sure um just trying to overcome that and not base what other people say about me and take that to heart and so and I've kind of carried that through this past season too you know having a good year last year and everybody's Riding High on me now but it still doesn't matter you know opinions don't matter you have to go out every day and try to get better so tell me Dealing with struggles about Norville cuz I know you've dealt with your struggles on one point take dealt with struggles Jordan Travis you have a lot of guys on that team that struggled throughout their careers and he continued to believe in them and I felt like it helped them build a lot of confidence so did Norville help you a lot out a lot throughout that process yeah absolutely I mean he he stuck with me believed in me and and kept pushing me to be better because he knew what I could be you know and and uh same thing with the guys you just mentioned too you know I talked to J Trav about that at one point and you know just how he overcame you know struggles in his early career and became you know one of the best college players of all time you know so just seeing him do that and you know it it gave me confidence that I can do the same thing so so now you had the Mental transformation struggles in 22 23 you were absolutely a beast so take us through that that Journey for you like mentally what was your mindset going into that year to have that transition you know that transformation that you you made like now now you're up for the Luke Rosa award and everybody in college football is like Amazed by what you're doing one of the best kickers in college football and you go from being a guy that's talked about everybody's ready to give up on and then the next year you're one of the best guys in college football yeah I think um you know after the 22 year I learned not to you know not not to focus on results you know like I was talking about earlier I think it just I really realize that it comes down to to having the confidence through preparation and you know focusing on my process and you know when I'm focusing on my process not the results the results take care of themselves and that's what happened last year you know I wasn't going into the 2023 season you know I was talking to somebody about this the other day I didn't really I didn't write down any goals for the 2023 year you know years before I always wrote down my goals for the year and what I want to accomplish and 2023 I wrote down you know focus on my process preparation and and really just shifting that focus on that made the results just come easy so okay so when I was at Practice structure Florida State we would have a special teams period you know a quick kicking period at the beginning of practice kick field goals do kickoffs then in the middle of practice you have you know your pun or whatever the situation is and then literally after that if you if you're a player on the team you go take a bathroom break you go inside you see all the kickers and Specialists they're playing ping pong and doing all different type of stuff what do you do in that damn time when you're not really doing anything I don't I don't have the way we structure our practices with Coach rille it's it's a little bit different you know we have I go out 30 minutes early I warm up then you know period one I'm kicking period three I got a field goal with Team you know period from period three to period 10 I'm I'm charting field goals 10 field goals uh Snapper holder and then you know period 10 to 12 we have special teams like you said Punt and then we have a fi goal period and then you know later half of practice I'm still up I can still kick so it's it's more like a game um you got to be warm for three and a half hours you know it takes a toll on your body but it's good preparation you know it's just like a game you know you don't you're not going to have kicks all throughout but you got to stay warm all throughout practice so yeah yeah no we we don't have too much downtime when we do you know we I don't know we we try to we try to support the rest of the team too you know because you know we still want to be leaders on the team and whenever like you said you know they look over in the locker room not do anything it's kind of hard to to show the rest of the team that you're working hard and we we take pride in that so we really try to if we're not doing anything we try to at least you know watch walk over watch offense see how they're doing sport offense defense okay Transition from struggling team so when you came into Florida State the team was struggling talk about that transition from being a struggling team trying to figure everything out and this with a program that has a rich tradition national championships and now in 2023 you guys have an opportunity to go undefeated and then you know they cheat you at the end of the year talk about that journey in 2023 season and then at the end of the year not getting rewarded what you everybody knows you deserve you know it was it was just our tribe 19 class was so close you know the guys in that and you know Darius Washington Marie Smith kayin Delo Keem Dent Renardo green like the list goes on and those guys that stuck with the program um you know through all those five years it was really cool like I remember in 2019 you know on the road at Clemson you know didn't didn't come out how we wanted to and me and darus were talking about a true freshman that year like you know next time we come back here things got to be different you know 2021 on the road at Clemson still didn't go our way close game but you know me and Darius said you know next time we're here we we got to get it done and then last year you know we beat him on the road at Clemson and me and Darius said we got it done you know so it was it was pretty cool to see that transition um and you know I just remember after the ACC Championship Game you know seeing DLo you know hugging and talking about you know we did this we finally did it because that was our goal you know since freshman year to to go on the feated win a conference Championship be able to play for National Championship we didn't get that opport Unity but you know I think we did everything in our power to put ourselves in a position to to earn that spot so Do you feel like youve won it all yeah do you feel like if y'all got the opportunity to get in the playoffs You' have won it All Florida State I mean absolutely I mean you look at the team you look at our defense you look at our offense you know it's not just a quarterback we had what 10 11 guys drafted so I mean it's it's not just one player it's a team for a reason and so you know I think our our talent level our chemistry you know everything we had last year was really special and you know it sucks we didn't we didn't get an opportunity but you know at the end of the day you know after that happened it's like what can we do you know what can we do about it now you know we did everything we can in our power didn't get the opportunity you know there's no nothing else we can really do you know other than freaking work harder this year and and you know make sure we get an opportunity okay Jordan Travis was a Jordan Travis major factor on that team one of the leaders talk to me about what he meant to that team and then ultimately the mindset once he goes down I know the team had Ambitions to win the championship even before that happens but were you guys more motivated after that happened to win it all for him yeah I mean absolutely I mean like we were talking about earlier you know J tra just to see his progression and how he kept his nose down it worked and grinding and got better and became you know one of the best players in college football just seeing that motivated all of us you know and he was he was our leader you know more so by actions just seeing how he came to work every day and and you know when he went down you know it it felt like the it was kind of on us to to Really you know step it up and and do it you know in his honor pretty much you know so okay currently at Florida State you had Major this fin final year final season six yeah yeah what um what's your what's your major uh I got my undergrad in accounting and insurance and I'm doing my masters in accounting right now okay so of course we all want you to go on the have a great year play 10 plus years in the NFL but do you is that what you want to do after your career is over I know a lot of guys struggle you know with that transition after and the reality is if you play 10 you play 20 at the end of the day you going to have to make that transition you kind of have an idea what you want to do once it's all said and done yeah I want I want to stay within the sport I want to stay within football and uh within Sports in general you know I want to want to work my way up to to be like a CFO of of an NFL organization or or you know something within Sports to to use my degree but also kind of stay connected to what I love best so okay okay and for you 2024 Goals for 2024 personal goals team goals what does 2024 look like you for you you know personal goals I mean there's not any other than focus on Preparation every day getting better every day and trust my process and whatever goals I might have they'll they'll take care of themselves you know and then as a team you know obviously we want to win another Conference Championship going defeated go go to the playoff win a National Championship you know bring Florida State back to where it deserves and so yeah okay what would Advice to young athletes you have to say to any young athlete out there in the world that's going through you know tough times mentally you know things that You' dealt with what would you say to them as advice to kind of overcome that adversity and come out on top you know I think nobody that has made it to the top hasn't been at the bottom at some point in their career and I think being in a lull in a bottom you know a place where you're struggling mentally just makes the top feel much more special cuz you appreciate it more I think that after my struggles I appreciated the spot I was in a lot more where I was and the opportunities I had in front of myself and just keep your head down keep grinding you know it doesn't matter with the out noise outside noise doesn't matter what people are saying you know it's it's all about you and what you want your legacy to be okay and man we I mean I've been Scoring as a kicker enjoying this I only got one more thing to ask you we talk about kickers and I think a lot of people they they talk trash they don't understand how difficult it is to be a kicker that being said on the scale of one to 10 what would you rate it for somebody like me mind you I play fullback I'm somewhat of an athlete to go out on the field I get three attempts at a field goal maybe a 20 yard 30 yard we don't know okay one to 10 what what are the shots that I'm able to do that I think mind you mind you mind you in middle school I was an All-American kickball player really yeah yeah okay okay I think you can make one from 20 from 20 a college extra point I think you can make one 30 30 30 allamerican kickball player all americ maybe even when the air was you know kind of deflated in the ball yeah yeah yeah n that doesn't help when the air is deflated I I think maybe yeah okay maybe with some coaching tips too yeah we we could get you making maybe one out of three from 30 yeah one out of three yeah okay I think Kicking at Bryan Stadium I think we need to go see I think we should okay let's do it all right all right yeah man we're at Bryan Stadium Lakeland High School home of the Dre kns I'm here with Luke Rosa Awards semi-finalist Florida State SOS kicker Ryan Fitzgerald and he's going to we're going through this right here going to try to see if I can nail nail me a few kicks from 50 because like I said I was All-American kickball player so we're going to see if I can you know do what the kickers do I think he might might get lucky hit a couple short ones we'll see we'll see what the range is like and see if we can get it up in between now if you tow it I mean those look like good shoes if you're going to tow I was going to wear my Adidas but n those look like good shoes to tow now for sure all right College extra point you going to stretch anything or you just going oh no man listen all American all American kickball so any tips for me before we get this process uh so I take so if you're going to if you're going to go straight up what I do with my steps I take three steps back and two over I'm like right here but I'm kicking with the side of my foot stalker style so if you're kicking it straight on I would go three steps back and maybe a half step over like right in here cuz your swing is going to be more you know straight up okay I'm kind of I swing a little bit across it so you might want to move in maybe a little bit all right this angle right here good yeah I mean we can see we can play around with it and see all right ah man n we can get it done you know it's been a while since I played kickball so we got to we got to warm it up a little bit I see it in the swing we can get it done well it sounded like he he hit it twice so there wasn't much thump in that one so we're going to see if we can clean up the contact a little bit he's kicking a little bit differently than I do so it's kind of we're both kind of learning with this with this uh scenario let's see another one let's just see another one I I didn't like the sound of that first one okay it sounded like it kind of rolled up your foot a little bit if you're going to kick it with your toe really keep it it's almost like it's strapped in like you can't like Flex yeah kind of flexed a little bit okay I got you all right going to do this thing then man all right going to I told you man L hey that might have been good from 23 yeah yeah 23 should we back it up 25 should back it up all right yeah test the range out see four the Jordans today so I can be a little bit like Mike I could let Mike down all right let's see what we got right mind you guys I didn't stretch like a cheater they don't stretch before they take off oh yeah okay okay okay yeah let's get it we might get 30 might get okay dang this is just so flatting to me I thought I did something then I looked back we were only on the 15 yd line all right this is the the final attempt for today I'm pushing 30 now so we can't risk any injuries cuz you know now I'm not in college anymore they're not paying for those those doctor bills so all right we're going to see 30 yards that had the distance man I appreciate you coming out today Ryan man listen I got a whole different level of respect for kickers right now and the world should too I don't think they realize how difficult you guys job is I just Tred to what we started up 15 started at 20 yeah made our way back to 30 made the 20 made the 20 and I'm I'm going to be honest when I saw the 20 it looked more like 80 so what you guys do is amazing and I got you know I nailed those couldn't get to 30 but we're going to keep practicing yeah there there's definitely progress there yeah yeah we we'll get there little little different than kickball but I I definitely appreciate the tips and we're going we're going to take that forward yeah thanks for having me out man I appreciate appreciate you yes sir go NOS [Music]